About $3 million in city funding will be used to help purchase two vacant lots in Northside for future development, which will include affordable housing.
The purchaser is The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority, in partnership with the neighborhood's community development corporation, Northsiders Engaged in Sustainable Transformation (NEST).
"These are the largest developable lots remaining in Northside," said NEST Executive Director Sarah Thomas. "This is actually the city and NEST's third attempt at getting community control over them since 2019."
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City Council's Budget and Finance Committee voted Monday to give initial approval to the funding agreement. Chair Reggie Harris praised neighborhood leaders for their commitment to the project.
"Many neighborhoods in our city have these sort of large vacant sites that are linchpins for development and very catalytic," Harris said. "The thing that I really commend about Northside and NEST is that we are seeing the fruits of like, years and years and years of negotiations and contracts and plans."
The money comes from the neighborhood's Tax Increment Financing District. A TIF District holds property tax revenue from new developments in the district; it can be spent on new public infrastructure or housing projects in the district.
The plan includes an initial cash grant of about $1.6 million, the current balance of the Northside TIF fund. The Port plans to take out a loan to cover the rest of the $3 million sale price, and the city commits to repay that loan from the fund as it's replenished. The loan is expected to be paid off by the summer of 2026.
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Thomas says NEST and the Northside Community Council have done significant community engagement about the site over the past few years, but more engagement is expected to start by the end of the year.
"We look forward to diving into community engagement to do more detailed planning, but we know that this could be a really great site for some housing density, and just fulfilling what is truly an entire kind of corridor in southern Northside," she said.
At least a portion of the project must be income-restricted housing, affordable at or below 60% Area Median Income, because of city requirements governing TIF District funding.
The properties are former industrial sites. The one on Cooper Street requires substantial environmental remediation before development can begin.
